US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years • Hacker News Board

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#61

Post by infecto » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:49 PM UTC

mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

Over the years I have read a few articles or blogs that make the argument that if government inflation figures in the US were calculated as they do in Europe, then our reported US inflation figures would be much higher. Can anyone here verify this? Our main problems involve under the table unreported to the public military expenditures. If you look at a map of our military bases, we have many bordering China. I think…

Had trouble following your core point. Do you have references regarding 900 bases with many bordering China. I have never seen such figures or that they border China.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#62

Post by grim_io » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:50 PM UTC

queuebert wrote: post #46

mlinhares wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defense stocks are shit to own, you only make money by buying up politicians and landing large contracts.

In other words, comparatively little of their profits are returned to shareholders. Insiders are making money, but the rest of us are shut out?

It means that the infamous military industrial complex does not exist in its fabled money printing form.

Turns out, the US government is very demanding and stingy with its money for what it ultimately gets.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#63

Post by piva00 » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:50 PM UTC

mark_l_watson wrote: post #56

Thorrez wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the US dollar was being devalued faster than reported, and the Euro wasn't, wouldn't that be visible in the exchange rate?

I think Europe has worse financial problems than we do.

Europe != EU != Eurozone.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#64

Post by ferguess_k » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

BartjeD wrote: post #10

And this is after they massaged the numbers, to avoid getting fired?

I think it's more like "No Sir we won't be able to lower the rate right now, look at this number" moment.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#65

Post by phkahler » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #31

mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

Over the years I have read a few articles or blogs that make the argument that if government inflation figures in the US were calculated as they do in Europe, then our reported US inflation figures would be much higher. Can anyone here verify this? Our main problems involve under the table unreported to the public military expenditures. If you look at a map of our military bases, we have many bordering China. I think…

What does debt have to do with the calculation of inflation? It may impact inflation but you seem to be claiming debt is a component of inflation calculation, when inflation is little more than the change in prices.

>> What does debt have to do with the calculation of inflation?

Debt isn't a component of inflation calculation but they are related. During Covid the US government increased the deficit (not debt, the derivative of debt) by a trillion dollars (no partisan stuff here, Trump did it first and then Biden). The infusion of money into the economy was one of the drivers of inflation between 2021 and 2025. You may ask, where did the money come from? I don't know. The government "borrowed" it, but from whom I don't know. Money "invested" does not necessarily get into the economy, but money invested in treasury bond gets spend by the government and definitely ends up in the economy.

I would love to have time (get paid?) to sit around and develop useful economic models. All I ever see is people offering simple cause and effect relationships (like I did above) without showing anything close to what I would consider a reasonable model of the economy.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#66

Post by ivape » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

whoiskevin wrote: post #30

ivape wrote: post #21

[flagged]

You don't think it is the one thing being wielded as a personal enrichment device by a giant man child that cheats at golf is the cause? Well okay good luck with that.

No. The price creep has been happening for years even under Biden. As someone mentioned, tariffs were just an excuse to accelerate it. The things in your grocery store are domestic goods.

We can look for mythical technical explanations as to what’s happening, but all things used to explain anything in our society is just to describe the state of your fellow man. Your fellow man is greedy. There.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#67

Post by zug_zug » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

Over the years I have read a few articles or blogs that make the argument that if government inflation figures in the US were calculated as they do in Europe, then our reported US inflation figures would be much higher. Can anyone here verify this? Our main problems involve under the table unreported to the public military expenditures. If you look at a map of our military bases, we have many bordering China. I think…

I can't speak to this, but I suspect something is afoot.

I know my mom went to a university that she paid for with a part-time job while a student. Currently that university's tuition is 80,000 a year. When I looked at what inflation figures said for college education, it wasn't enough to account for that 10x+ increase.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#68

Post by jahnu » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

elzbardico wrote: post #51

Frankly, I haven't seen a single country where I spent any significant amount of time, where official inflation numbers were not seeing as a complete joke by the common folks. And my experience usually matched it. There's plenty of space to hide reality when building a price index. Price index do not capture the reality of most people cost of living. They don't capture the family that have to buy margarine instead of…

> Frankly, I haven't seen a single country where I spent any significant amount of time, where official inflation numbers were not seeing as a complete joke by the common folks.

The public in general can be really bad at perceiving the truth. I might take note of people's feelings to go and recheck something but I would not trust peoples feelings with stuff like this to make any sort of conclusion.

Verifiable metrics* are the only way to get any sort of objective handle on this.

* Edit: I replied below that I should have said verifiable metrics and context with discussion. Verifiable metrics are necessary but not sufficient.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#69

Post by Nicook » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

Havoc wrote: post #36

Are there inflation indicators that aren’t government controlled? Don’t think anything coming out of trump influenced bodies is worth the paper it’s on anymore

There are plenty of indicators, not like its an exact science. Can trust the government one to be always under-reported, the incentive is obvious. I'm a fan of gold prices for longer periods of time.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#70

Post by dalyons » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

hvb2 wrote: post #17

aaronax wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the rise from one year ago in the "less-volatile PPI metric that excludes food, energy and trade services". This month was a 0.6% rise. So some people might think about how more months of 0.6% rise would cause the yearly one to increase gradually, up to 7.2% eventually if there are 12x 0.6% months. That would be pretty high. And then headline figure PPI was even higher at 0.9% for the month, 3.3% year.

0.6% of monthly inflation wouldn't be 7.2% you can't multiply like that. So the real number would be 1.006^12=7.44% And over 7% inflation is a bit more than 'pretty high' that's getting really scary if there's no clear outside reason for it

Which of course there is a clear outside reason for it.